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After hundreds of meatpacking workers died from COVID-19, Congress wants answers

by Bernice Yeung and Michael Grabell, ProPublica

Colorado’s award-winning ‘Soul Food Scholar’ on history, publishing, race and barbecue

by Matt Cortina

First NEST residency exhibition at Firehouse Art Center explores the boundaries between the natural and artificial

by Caitlin Rockett

R. Alan Brooks comes to the Dairy for Black History Month and beyond

by Caitlin Rockett

Boulder Beer relaunches with new cans and talk of a new taproom

by Matt Cortina

The indica-sativa duality is confused — Weedmaps’ Jared Leighty explains what factors actually produce strain-specific effects

by Will Brendza

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Writers on the Range: Gun nut has a warning Guest Column: If we can find WallStreetBets users, why can’t we find Q? Letters: Signed, sealed, delivered, your views News Briefs: On standardized testing, camping bans and occupancy limits Events: Boulder Bicycle Film Festival, opera, a social justice discussion, and more to do when there’s ‘nothing’ to do...

Film: Dispatches from the 2021 Sundance Film Festival Words: ‘A memory I can hardly remember...’ by John E. Epic Astrology: by Rob Brezsny Savage Love: Toy boy Food/Drink: Cobbarado Salad @ Naked Lunch Feast: Boulder entrepreneur grows plant-based broth business

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Publisher, Fran Zankowski Editor, Matt Cortina Circulation Manager, Cal Winn EDITORIAL Senior Editor, Angela K. Evans Arts and Culture Editor, Caitlin Rockett Contributing Writers, Peter Alexander, Dave Anderson, Emma Athena, Will Brendza, Rob Brezsny, Michael J. Casey, Sarah Haas, Jim Hightower, Dave Kirby, John Lehndorff, Rico Moore, Amanda Moutinho, Katie Rhodes, Leland Rucker, Dan Savage, Alan Sculley, Ryan Syrek, Christi Turner, Betsy Welch, Tom Winter, Gary Zeidner SALES AND MARKETING Market Development Manager, Kellie Robinson Account Executives, Matthew Fischer, Sami Wainscott Advertising Coordinator, Corey Basciano Mrs. Boulder Weekly, Mari Nevar PRODUCTION Art Director, Susan France Senior Graphic Designer, Mark Goodman CIRCULATION TEAM Dave Hastie, Dan Hill, George LaRoe, Jeffrey Lohrius, Elizabeth Ouslie, Rick Slama BUSINESS OFFICE Bookkeeper, Regina Campanella Founder/CEO, Stewart Sallo Editor-at-Large, Joel Dyer Cover photo, Caitlin Rockett February 11, 2021 Volume XXVIII, Number 26 As Boulder County's only independently owned newspaper, Boulder Weekly is dedicated to illuminating truth, advancing justice and protecting the First Amendment through ethical, no-holds-barred journalism and thought-provoking opinion writing. Free every Thursday since 1993, the Weekly also offers the county's most comprehensive arts and entertainment coverage. Read the print version, or visit boulderweekly.com. Boulder Weekly does not accept unsolicited editorial submissions. If you're interested in writing for the paper, please send queries to: editorial@ boulderweekly.com. Any materials sent to Boulder Weekly become the property of the newspaper.

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Boulder Weekly welcomes your correspondence via email (letters@ boulderweekly.com) or the comments section of our website at www.boulderweekly.com. Preference will be given to short letters (under 300 words) that deal with recent stories or local issues, and letters may be edited for style, length and libel. Letters should include your name, address and telephone number for verification. We do not publish anonymous letters or those signed with pseudonyms. Letters become the property of Boulder Weekly and will be published on our website.

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Gun nut has a warning

By Brian Sexton

W

hen I was a young man growing up in rural Oregon, there was a term for people like me: “gun nut.”

By my 20s I had a sizable collection of rifles, pistols and shotguns. Some people I knew had a “pre-64” Winchester, a rifle renowned for its quality. Or they had a Browning Auto 5, a beautiful shotgun. A friend had 10 of those in various gauges.

But gun nuts today are a different breed entirely.

When they talk about guns, they don’t get into describing graceful lines, tight grain wood or immaculate bluing. At gun stores today, what I hear praised is firepower that comes out of black plastic and steel. And these weapons are not for hunting, they’re assault rifles sometimes called “modern sporting guns.” The kind of sport they’re good for is not spelled out.

One of the gun stores I visited recently boasted a back wall lined with assault-style rifles, pistols and defensive shotguns, all black except for a choice few in hot pink “for FEBRUARY 11, 2021

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the ladies.” The staff mostly wore black as well.

Their T-shirts for sale featured some amalgam of the American flag and warnings such as “Don’t tread on me” and an ancient Greek phrase roughly meaning “Come and take them.” Everybody — and I mean staff and other customers — was packing holstered pistols. I felt out of place and time.

In my sleepy Oregon town, sentiments like this don’t stop at a gun store. A trip to the supermarket is not complete without several sightings of men or women packing a pistol on their hip.

It is as if we are living in a fetishized version of the Wild West. Some of these folks probably envision themselves as the white-hat cowboy, a character prepared to defend against marauders.

My town boasts one of the oldest independent newspapers in Oregon, but the readership is a quarter that of the Facebook page for the local police scanner. Every crime committed is conveniently pinged to each follower’s cell, providing a steady feed of this world’s ills. But when we see the world through a lens of fear, it is no wonder that we look at our neighbors with suspicion. Maybe that explains see WRITERS ON THE RANGE Page 5

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

If we can find WallStreetBets users, why can’t we find Q?

by Jason Hansen

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n the final days of January, the identity of Reddit user “DeepF—ingValue” from the forum WallStreetBets was made public at the same time most people were learning of the site’s existence. The user had not been accused of a single crime and was not under criminal investigation but was doxxed in the media all the same.

Similar investigations into WallStreetBets have already been announced by the SEC, and we are likely to see more users unmasked as a result. As a cybersecurity analyst and U.S. Army veteran, it made me think — If a certain 4chan account known as “Q” had been promoting GameStop stocks instead of violence at the U.S. Capitol, would we already know who they are?

Articulating what the QAnon movement believes is difficult — one of its strengths is that it functions as a “big tent conspiracy theory,” meaning people who identify with the movement do not necessarily believe the same things. Foreign actors and domestic terror groups have also inserted themselves into the movement, using it to drive membership and propagate politically advantageous chaos. However, the whole society is held together by a single lynchpin, the “Q” account and the individual or individuals running it. QAnon relies on the conviction that “Q” is highly placed within the government and fighting on behalf of the American people. Publicly prosecuting those behind the account for their role in the Capitol riots is our best chance to push back

against this narrative.

The evidence against “Q” starts all the way back in fall 2017, when they identified themselves as a highranking military official and began posting cryptic messages, known as “drops,” about a shadow war being fought by Donald Trump on behalf of the American people. These drops were then interpreted by the QAnon community, who sought to piece together hidden clues with current events to construct an alternate reality where this conflict was indeed taking place, a process commonly referred to as “doing your own research.” Almost 5,000 of these drops have taken place since, a steady stream of lies and disinformation which have incited violence, destruction and death across the country.

Part of the resilience of the QAnon movement is that these drops are open to interpretation, meaning that proving one conspiracy wrong is irrelevant. If the worldview a believer has fashioned based on their research falls apart, there are dozens of alternative readings on message boards across the internet. Not only do these alternate readings prevent susceptible individuals from being able to come back to reality, but they can also lead to further radicalization depending on the viewpoints of site moderators. Undoubtedly, there will be additional court cases driven by the actions of such QAnon adherents, but until we address the source, we are not doing anything to curb similar events in the future.

IF A CERTAIN 4chan account known as “Q” had been promoting GameStop stocks instead of violence at the U.S. Capitol, would we already know who they are?

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

see GUEST COLUMN Page 6

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WRITERS ON THE RANGE from Page 4

the amazing statistic last year from Axios.com that “an estimated 5 million Americans bought their first gun.”

Dana Loesch, the former spokeswoman for the bankrupt National Rifle Association, talked about this free-floating fear: “The government has proven it cannot keep us safe, yet some people want to disarm all of us.”

This new group of men and women who wear guns as political statements apparently no longer experience weapons as tools for hunting or for sport. Even claims of defense are suspect. What type of threat necessitates military firepower?

Somehow, guns have become identified as symbolizing freedom, individuality or just plain cantankerousness. It makes me miss the old days when a gun was just a tool — albeit sometimes a beautifully crafted one.

The irony of the modern gun movement is that a take-no-prisoners stance on gun rights might just turn into a groundswell of support for tighter regulations of guns. But when the patriots start to lose gun nuts like me, they teeter on the brink of irrelevance.

Meanwhile, as the FBI cracks down on extremists who like to brag about their weapons on social media, we could be looking at more outbreaks of violence. LaVoy Finicum, who was killed by the FBI during the Malheur Refuge occupation in

Oregon, seems to have become a martyr. Kyle Rittenhouse, the young man charged in the slaying of two civil rights protesters in Kenosha, Wisconsin, has even developed a cult-like following.

The so-called patriots of today risk the very rights they’ve pledged to uphold with their lives. I know it’s a far less exciting thing to promote, but what makes America great is getting things done by talking and compromising.

I do not own an AR-15, and depending on my mood I can make an argument both for and against further regulations. After all, is my favorite deer rifle any less deadly than the scariest-looking assault weapon?

But on Jan. 6 at the Capitol, as I witnessed some of my countrymen threaten to use their weapons against our government, I found regulations more appealing.

It may be tedious to take part in politics on the level of reading about issues and engaging with people, but so far, that’s what makes America the best place to live. If I had to come up with a T-shirt slogan about a weapon, it wouldn’t be a threat, a warning or a brag. How about: A gun is just a gun.

This opinion column does not necessarily reflect the views of Boulder Weekly.

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WHEN THE patriots

start to lose gun nuts like me, they teeter on the brink of irrelevance.

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BVSD Equitable School Day a bust for elementary families BVSD plans to have most elementary schools start at 7:45 a.m. to ensure all students have the same amount of instructional time (seven hours), while keeping transportation costs neutral and maintaining a late start for high school students. In conjunction, BVSD proposed a late start on Wednesdays for teacher planning purposes.

Working families bear the brunt of this change with increased childcare costs linked to before and after care, less time with their kids (the work day was not adjusted) and disrupted sleep schedules. Primary caregivers (often women) will bear the weight of managing this change.

Anecdotal parent response is unfavorable but BVSD is unphased.

Its feedback forum Let’s Talk offers a survey asking parents what support they might need, but don’t offer parents a way to indicate if they are in favor of the move. The same forum accepts questions, but questions and responses are moderated, allowing for censorship of parent opinion.

Research on the effect of early start times for younger learners is still in its infancy but there are indicators early start times negatively influence school performance for some demographics. Rob Price, assistant superintendent of operations at BVSD, responded to concern with the advice that younger students may “more easily adjust their sleep schedules to get the recommended amount of sleep compared to adolescents.” Science does agree that elementary aged kids need between nine to 12 hours of sleep a night, making a 7:45 a.m. start difficult to achieve for most families (thanks for that parenting advice though).

Adding to the burden on families, on Wednesdays, schools will participate in a late start (8:45 a.m.).

Disruptive to young kids sense of order and routine, this will also force families to find/plan for childcare as kids this age are generally unable to walk/get themselves to school.

For a district struggling with low elementary enrollment due to the see LETTERS Page 7

GUEST COLUMN from Page 5

Several reputable news sources have already printed theories on the identity or identities of “Q” based on open-source materials. There is no reason the multi-trillion-dollar security apparatus of the United States government could not do the rest, particularly considering the credible threats of further violence and the extraordinary powers granted by the Patriot Act. If foreign insurgents had stormed a military outpost with flags and shirts embolized with “Q” on them, we would know their identities already.

It is easy, and perhaps convenient, to pin all this on political opponents.

There are certainly those who share a measure of the blame. However, doing so without this corresponding action only drives a wedge between our already fractured country without offering an opportunity for reconciliation. Prosecuting President Trump for his part in the Capitol riots without pursuing similar charges against “Q” is like trying to charge gasoline for causing a fire without indicting a 6

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match. The House came close to this realization back in October 2020, when they voted to condemn QAnon and other fringe conspiracy movements by a vote of 371-18. However, this condemnation lumped “Q” and those “Q” deceived together. By specifically targeting and prosecuting “Q,” we can begin to recognize those Americans as victims rather than criminals, while simultaneously cutting off a recruiting tool for future extremists. If the government has time to investigate Reddit posts about meme stocks, shouldn’t they have time for that?

Jason Hansen is a cybersecurity analyst and U.S. Army veteran who lives and works in the Boulder metro area. He holds numerous technical certifications and plans to graduate from Regis University with a master’s degree in information assurance: cybersecurity in the spring.

This opinion column does not necessarily reflect the views of Boulder Weekly.

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

cost of living in Boulder, this plan discourages enrollment in local schools while asking more from resource-strapped parents. Comments on the plan can be emailed to Rob Price at rob.price@bvsd.org Chandra Hardwicke/Boulder

Biden must reform BLM President Biden signed an executive order with the commendable goal of protecting 30% of our nation’s lands and waters by 2030. If achieved, this would be a significant response to the mounting climate and extinction crises.

The largest chunks of federal lands are managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), particularly here in the West. BLM could therefore play a key role in whether this protection goal is met.

Unfortunately, BLM cannot currently fulfill this role because it has repeatedly demonstrated that it cannot protect its lands that already have protective legal designations.

Despite strong public opposition and science against it, BLM continues to allow harmful commercial livestock grazing and other uses in many of its national monuments, national conservation areas, wilderness areas and areas of critical environmental concern. For example, BLM recently approved a controversial Northern Corridor Highway through its Red Cliffs National Conservation Area in southwest Utah. This approval likely violates several laws, conflicts with the statutory conservation purposes of this area, degrades lands acquired for permanent protection, and would jeopardize threatened Mojave desert tortoises and destroy their legally designated critical habitat.

Before I took early retirement, I worked for BLM as a planning and environmental coordinator from 2002 to 2017. I learned the sad truth that BLM’s dominant management culture is regressive, biased and secretive.

This culture is deeply embedded and persisted during the eight Obama administration years. Managers tend to be most afraid of Republican politicians, influential commercial interests and angry ranchers. They are risk-averse and willing to allow political expediency to supersede the law and science. This results in “protection” as words on legal documents BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

but not necessarily as actual outcomes.

President Biden must fundamentally reform BLM’s dominant management culture. Managers who put crass political calculations and their own “multiple use” biases over the law, science and public interest should be removed. As should managers who fail to deal with harmful uses such as trespass grazing or are unable to reverse downward resource trends under their control. If this reform is

successful, BLM lands designated for protection could actually receive it.

Without this reform, much of any claimed BLM progress on this protection would be a fraudulent illusion.

Richard Spotts/Utah

Gun ownership With increasing cultural and economic anxiety and a Democratic president and Congress, gun sales are up again under the insistence of a sacred right to arm oneself for per-

sonal protection. Despite rising gun violence, any hint of regulation will be resisted. The gun culture is so strong in the American psyche that one should not be surprised if tribal AK47 and Glock totems begin appearing in both rural and gated communities, and it seems we will now need metal detectors not only in schools but also in nursing homes.

The great shame is that this is not a national embarrassment.

Robert Porath/Boulder

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BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

Editor’s note: JBS operates a beef processing facility in Greeley, which is currently under investigation for a November 2020 COVID-19 outbreak.

According to Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) data, 96 employees had confirmed cases. This follows outbreaks earlier in the year which resulted in six deaths and about 300 positive cases of COVID-19. JBS is currently facing a $15,615 fine from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration for the earlier outbreak. The company is appealing the fine according to Reuters.

After hundreds of meatpacking workers died from COVID-19, Congress wants answers

by Bernice Yeung and Michael Grabell, ProPublica

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key congressional panel launched an investigation on Feb. 1 into the wave of COVID-19 infections that killed hundreds of workers at meatpacking plants nationwide last year and highlighted longstanding hazards in the industry.

Since the start of the pandemic, the meat industry has struggled to contain the virus in its facilities, and plants in Iowa, South Dakota and Kansas have endured some of the biggest workplace outbreaks in the country.

The meat companies’ employees, many of them immigrants and refugees, slice pig bellies or cut up chicken carcasses in close quarters.

Many of them don’t speak English and aren’t granted paid sick leave. To date, more than 50,000 meatpacking workers have been infected and at least 250 have died, according to a ProPublica tally.

The congressional investigation, opened by the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, will examine the role of JBS, Smithfield Foods and Tyson Foods, three of the nation’s largest meat BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

companies, which, the subcommittee said, had “refused to take basic precautions to protect their workers” and had “shown a callous disregard for workers’ health.”

The subcommittee is chaired by Rep. James E. Clyburn of South Carolina, the No. 3 Democrat in the House.

In response to the subcommittee’s announcement, officials for JBS and Tyson said that the companies had spent hundreds of millions of dollars to implement coronavirus protections and to temporarily increase pay and benefits, and they looked forward to discussing their pandemic safety efforts with the panel. Smithfield said in a statement that it had also taken “extraordinary measures” to protect employees from the virus, spending more than $700 million on workplace modifications, testing and equipment.

The House subcommittee noted that reports from a variety of news organizations had illuminated problems with how the meatpacking companies handled the pandemic, and with the Occupational Safety I

and Health Administration (OSHA)’s enforcement efforts. The subcommittee cited ProPublica’s reporting on how meat companies blindsided local public health departments, and on Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts’ efforts to intervene when local health officials tried to temporarily shutter a JBS plant amid an outbreak.

ProPublica has also documented how meat companies ignored years of warnings from the federal government about how a pandemic could tear through a food processing facility, and chronicled the role that meatpacking plants like a Tyson pork facility in Waterloo, Iowa, have played in spreading the virus to the surrounding community.

The subcommittee’s inquiry will also scrutinize the federal government’s shortcomings in protecting meatpacking workers. “Public reports indicate that under the Trump Administration, [OSHA] failed to adequately carry out its responsibility for enforcing worker safety laws at meatpacking plants across the country, resulting in preFEBRUARY 11, 2021

ventable infections and deaths,” according to the subcommittee’s letter to OSHA. The subcommittee also said that the agency had issued only a “few meager fines” and “failed to show urgency in addressing safety hazards at the meatpacking facilities it inspected.” The letter noted that OSHA had received complaints about JBS and Smithfield plants months before the agency conducted inspections.

David Seligman, a lawyer who helped meatpacking workers in Pennsylvania file a lawsuit against OSHA during the pandemic, said he hopes the subcommittee’s efforts are “just one of the initial steps” to holding companies accountable and ensuring workers are safe.

“The harm inflicted on meat-processing workers during this pandemic, in service of the profits of corporate meatpacking companies and under a government that seemed happy to turn a blind eye, is a grave scandal,” Seligman wrote in an email.

In a statement, a Department of Labor spokesperson said that the subcommittee’s inquiry is “focused on the Trump administration’s actions surrounding the protection of workers from COVID-19 related risks,” and the agency is committed to protecting workers, and new guidance on coronavirus enforcement that was issued in late January will serve as a “first step.”

In its Feb. 1 letters to OSHA, JBS, Tyson and Smithfield, the subcommittee has requested documents related to government inspections at meatpacking plants and COVID-19 complaints lodged with the companies. OSHA was asked to brief the subcommittee by Feb. 15.

This story was originally published

by ProPublica.

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BERNARD GRANT

In conversation with Colorado’s award-winning “Soul Food Scholar”

ADRIAN MILLER went from high-level government work to helping build the canon of black contributions throughout history.

on history, publishing, race and barbecue

by Matt Cortina

H

ow did Colorado’s Adrian Miller, an attorney with degrees from Stanford and Georgetown, go from working in the Clinton administration and serving as a senior policy analyst for former Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter, to being a James Beard Awardwinning writer and documentarian of African American history and cooking?

“The short answer is unemployment,” Miller says, with a laugh. “Basically I was working in the Clinton administration [as a special assistant for the Initiative for One America to address racial, religious and ethnic reconciliation] and at that time in my life, I was trying to get back to Colorado to start my political career but the job market was slow. I was watching a lot of daytime television, so I was like, ‘I should read something.’”

Miller went to the bookstore and found John Egerton’s Southern Food: At home, on the road, in history, a seminal history of food in the South published in 1987. In the book, Egerton writes that a tribute to black achievement in American cookery had yet to be written. So Miller cold-emailed Egerton and asked: Well, has anyone written it? Egerton’s answer: no.

And so Miller set about producing books that, among other things, highlight black contributions to America’s culinary history: Soul Food, which looks at the multi-cultural origins of the soul food tradition, and which netted Miller that James Beard Award; and The President’s Kitchen Cabinet, which looks at how black chefs have served in the White House 10

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since the country’s founding, and which was a finalist for an NAACP Image Award and a Colorado Book Award.

Miller’s latest book, Black Smoke (to be released in April), puts black barbecuers, pitmasters and entrepreneurs in the center of America’s long barbecue history.

In Black Smoke, Miller posits what he calls a “maybe controversial” point: Barbecue, as we know it today, began with indigenous people. While Europeans brought quick-grilling methods to the continent, many indigenous tribes had traditionally cooked their meat low and slow — over a few days — in an earth oven, or a pit formed in the ground.

What resulted was a hybrid of the two methods, and after enslavement of indigenous people transitioned to enslavement of Africans brought from overseas, Miller says, “Africans became the go-to cooks.”

When we talk about barbecue, we tend to talk about regions — Texas brisket, Carolina pulled pork, variations in Kansas City, Memphis, St. Louis, etc. But black barbecue defies region, Miller says, and from the long period of enslavement through Reconstruction, and into the 20th century, black barbecue developed into its own style that’s both part of and separate from what we call Southernstyle barbecue.

“The thing about African American barbecue is it defies regional categorization,” Miller says. “Black barbecue is pork spare ribs, chicken and hot link sausages.”

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Early black barbecuers also get credit, Miller says, for introducing spicy sauce imbued with red pepper, potentially an offshoot of Caribbean culinary traditions.

Now, that’s all an oversimplification, and you should read Black Smoke to get the full context. It’s important, especially in an age when, for myriad, entrenched reasons, black entrepreneurs don’t have the same advantages as their white counterparts when it comes to opening businesses or writing the history of black contributions in various realms of society.

In fact, Miller says, going back to his conversation with Egerton: “Frankly, I would love to write the grand opus on African American cooking but nobody wants to seem to fund that.”

“I just posted this on Twitter a few minutes ago: Soul Food is going into its eighth printing. I put in the post, maybe it’s petty of me to do this, but I was saying how much haterade I’ve had to drink over the last eight years because of these projects. ‘It’s not a good enough fit, nobody’s going to read it.’ That’s been a constant theme in my career.”

After a year in which the publishing and food industries were forced to reckon with the subjugation of black voices (groups from the aforementioned James Beard Foundation to Bon Appétit to the Court of Master Sommeliers made changes in attempts to increase representation of people of color), Miller says, “I’ve noticed more black writers are now getting more opportunities.” But, of course, the sources of inequity in the food and media spheres are systemic, and mirror those of society at-large.

“For restaurateurs and chefs, the problem is African Americans do not get access to capital to start and run businesses as much as their white BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

counterparts. Since they don’t have access to capital, you rely on financing from your home. You tap your social network to raise money, and black entrepreneurs are at a distinct disadvantage with that,” Miller says. “We know from redlining practices that black homes are under-valued because of the persistent wealth gap in the United States. Black Americans have less wealth than white Americans; that’s why you don’t see a lot of representation in the restaurant industry.

“On the media side,” Miller continues, “the unfortunate thing is most of the people who decide what media stories get told are white. If they don’t value diversity, the spotlight is to going to shine on the ... people in their own world.”

Here’s one small example of how the food media can skew public perception along racial lines. If you’re into barbecue or have just watched too much Food Network, you’ve probably heard something along the lines of: Good barbecue doesn’t need sauce. You should be able to taste the meat. Anybody can make sauce.

But, Miller says, “Millions of African Americans would say, ‘Says who?’” They’d “flip that around and say, ‘Anybody could cook the meat.’”

Maybe that sounds like small potatoes, but when a group of mostly — nearly exclusively — white people control the message on food, society’s perceptions of what’s “authentic” or “legitimate” changes and it reinforces the inequity in our social structure.

“The reason you don’t have a lot of African American representation, even though there are plenty of black people barbecuing, is food media has been skewed,” Miller says. “In the 1990s you had the rise of people called foodies — people with money, time, looking for authentic experiences. At the very same time that rose, the media that exploded in order to meet that demand was again white people deciding what stories need to be told. So foodies got a very skewed image of what constitutes authentic.”

Black Smoke is a critical entry into the once-one-way conversation on authenticity. Miller mines historical documents, visits black-owned barbecue spots throughout the country and interviews backyard barbecue enthusiasts to produce a book that enriches our historical understanding of food in America, and sets us up to celebrate BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

black contributions to food, specifically through barbecue, with recipes and places to visit on your next road trip.

Next up for the multi-hyphenate Miller is to figure out a way to “revive our barbecue past” in Colorado.

You’ve heard the conventional wisdom that our state doesn’t have good barbecue (Miller says that’s not true, and I agree), but there is an opportunity to look back to indigenous traditions to rediscover culinary techniques with an animal that once

roamed these lands: the bison.

“We used to be known for lamb and bison and we got away from it, and I think there’s a real opportunity now to create a signature barbecue,” Miller says.

Native peoples across the Great Plains cooked bison meat between layers of green, moist vegetation atop heated rocks for an extended period of time; then they’d feast.

“I think that could be replicated; we just gotta figure out, did they use

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a sauce, and if so, what kind,” he says.

That endeavor, along with Black Smoke, is an example of how food helps us marry our past to our present to create a better future. And when Miller says, “You can’t talk about, and celebrate, barbecue in America without including African Americans,” well, one could switch out “barbecue” for quite a lot else.

Preorder Adrian Miller’s Black Smoke at adrianemiller.com/about-thebook/blacksmoke/buy-black-smoke.

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BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

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EMMA ATHENA

omeless advocates have long argued that local ordinances preventing camping in public spaces violates the Constitutional rights of the unhoused. And on Feb. 4, a Colorado appellate court agreed with them for the first time in the state.

In September 2018, Adam Wiemold was sleeping in his car at the Poudre rest area near I-25 in Fort Collins when law enforcement cited him for illegal camping. At the time, he had been unhoused for about two years and couldn’t stay in any of the two area shelters due to shelter policies. (He worked at one — Catholic Charities — which prevented him from staying there as well as Fort Collins Rescue Mission due to overlapping populations.) Both shelters were also at maximum capacity that night.

Although Wiemold was initially convicted of violating the City’s anti-camping ordinance in municipal court, a Larimer County District Court ruled on Feb. 4

that the prosecution against Wiemold violated the prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment. It follows a 2018 decision in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals against the City of Boise, which local cities have long argued doesn’t have jurisdiction in Colorado. According to the ACLU, which represents Wiemold, the decision in Larimer County District Court should protect many unhoused people from prosecution across the state.

“As a matter of basic human dignity, it is just wrong to criminalize a homeless person sleeping on public property when they have nowhere else to go,” said ACLU Cooperating Attorney Adam Frank said in a press release. “Everyone has to sleep. If someone is going through homelessness and can’t access shelter, they have to sleep outside. I am grateful the court recognized that the Eighth Amendment requires cities in Colorado to respect this principle of our shared humanity.”

Larimer County District Court rules camping ban unconstitutional, a first in the state

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Denver increases occupancy limits; Could Boulder be next?

THE NUMBER OF COLORADO organizations, elected officials, businesses and community members who signed onto a Feb. 8 letter condemning Senator John Hickenlooper’s vote to block stimulus payments to undocumented immigrants.

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

n the early hours of Feb. 9, Denver City Council voted to increase occupancy limits in the city from a maximum of two unrelated adults sharing a home to five. The vote came after three years of discussion, including research from more than 30 cities with higher occupancy limits that showed household sizes in those places were still only 2 to 3.1 people on average.

The vote also came just hours after the Bedrooms Are For People (BAFP) campaign, which seeks to expand housing options in Boulder, was approved to start gathering electronic signatures for its 2021 ballot initiative. If passed, it would allow “all housing units to be occupied by a number of people equal to the number of legal bedrooms, plus one additional person per home.”

Currently, Boulder law restricts more than three unrelated adults from living in the same household, regardless of the size of the house.

“We are thrilled the Denver City Council recognized the need the reform their exclusionary home occupancy laws,” BAFP organizers said in a statement to BW. “For years, Boulder’s elected officials have refused to listen to repeated requests from thousands of their constituents, members of cityappointed boards, and city staff experts to reconsider the laws ... that have harmed people and limited housing opportunities in the city for more than 50 years. ” BAFP officially launched its petition campaign on Thursday, Feb. 11.

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Should students take standardized tests this spring?

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t its Feb. 9 meeting, Boulder Valley School District (BVSD) Board of Education unanimously passed a resolution asking state and federal officials to waive standardized testing this spring in light of the disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Recent polling released Feb. 4 by the Colorado Education Association (CEA) and other education organizations suggests that two-thirds of public school parents and six out of 10 rural voters in the state believe Colorado Measures of Academic Success, or CMAS, testing should be canceled this year for grades 3-8.

More than half the respondents said they believed that classroom instruction and teaching would be the best method for closing any learning gaps that have arisen from the pandemic.

“When students and educators are struggling, bouncing between in-person, virtual and hybrid learning depending on the COVID-19 conditions in their community, administering the CMAS this spring would be irresponsible,” Amie Baca-Oehlert, high school counselor and president of CEA, the state’s largest educators union, said in a press release. “The wisest thing to do is to focus every single second on instruction so our students are able to concentrate on learning and maintaining their mental health until the pandemic subsides.”

But another poll from Denverbased advocacy organization A+ Colorado, released Feb. 2, found that 66% of parents with kids in grades K-12 support statewide testing this year, but only if specifically to assess student learning loss. “Resulting data should not be used for accountability purposes,” a press release from the organization reads.

In part, the BVSD resolution states, “standardized testing during the 2020-2021 school year will yield no additional timely and actionable information that would help the School District support students in catching up from COVID-19 disruptions or the District in closing the known achievement gaps.”

Testing was cancelled in 2020 after the state was granted a waiver from the federal government.

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PHOTOS BY CAITLIN ROCKETT

The perception of nature

First NEST residency exhibition at Firehouse Art Center explores the boundaries between the natural and artificial

by Caitlin Rockett

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fter three months of work — between five and 10 hours a day most weeks — artist Amy Hoagland’s work will come to an end when her installation Scope of the Natural opens to the public at Firehouse Art Center on Feb. 11.

For Hoagland’s collaborator, Jennifer Cole, the work is just beginning.

On paper the two might seem like an odd pair: Hoagland is a sculptor, while Cole is a social psychologist. Yet both CU graduate students use their respective work to explore how humans relate to nature, with Hoagland creating 3D scanned sculptures of natural objects like rocks and trees, and Cole studying the psychological processes of pro-environmental behavior.

The two were a natural fit for a new residency program sponsored by CU Boulder’s NEST Studio for the Arts. The program pairs artists with scientists to explore the interrelation between disciplines — how science can inform art, and how art can inform science.

Scope of the Natural, showing at Firehouse through March 7, addresses the boundaries between the natural and the artificial in a technology-heavy world, but it also uses Hoagland’s sculptures — 3D renderings of rock formations bound in crystalline structures of metal and glass — as an environment where Cole can conduct research on how viewers psychologically experience art. After patrons view the installation, they can choose to take part in a research study.

“My half of the project is the research half,” Cole explains via email. “So now that Amy (Hoagland)’s work is almost done, mine is just beginning! Specifically, I have designed the experiment and created the survey materials, will manage the recruitment of participants and collection of data, will perform statistical analyses on the data and compare data collected in person at the Firehouse to data collected from several online studies (two I have conducted already, one more I will conduct in

IN ‘SCOPE OF THE NATURAL,’ Amy Hoagland created 3D scanned “rocks” and lattice structures to question the boundary between natural and artificial.

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BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

PHOTOS BY CAITLIN ROCKETT

early March using the video tour of Scope of the Natural) that look at similar research questions, and then will write up and present the findings.”

The NEST (Nature, Environment, Science and Technology) residency is the Firehouse’s first partnership with CU Boulder. Firehouse Curator Brandy Coons says she was immediately drawn to Hoagland and Cole’s proposal.

“This project was really exciting, and the specific goals of their project are particularly interesting to us,” Coons says. “[Cole] is providing what we hope will be some kind of quantitative data related to how people interact with the visual arts. That is so cool because we do so much talking and arguing about the value of what we do [as an arts organization], and so being able to put some numbers behind that is really exciting.”

With limited capacity allowed inside the Firehouse (you’ll need to call ahead to make an appointment to visit Wednesday-Friday), Scope of the Natural provides ample space — a visual feast with minimal materials. Glass and metal lattice structures cradle 3D scanned sculptures of rocks, and cleverly placed lights and mirrors cast shadow sculptures of their own. The effect feels both natural and artificial, like moving through a digital rendering of Arches National Park.

“Because we’re in this limited capacity situation, BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

there’s a minimalism to the experience of the work,” Coons explains. “You’re not trying to see it around other people and you can actually see the way that the light is moving on the walls, and that becomes part of the experience.”

Hoagland creates the rock sculptures using a process called photogrammetry, where multiple photos are taken of a natural form — in this case rocks — and then placed into a software that stitches the images together to create a 3D file.

Hoagland then uses a laser cutter to fabricate the pieces of the 3D file from cardboard. She texturizes the sculptures with sawdust as lichen.

The materials act as a way to further blur the distinction between natural and man-made.

“At first glance, one may not notice the material as cardboard, but looking closer it becomes much more familiar,” Hoagland explains via email.

“This allows for a connection between a material we would possibly not readily identify as nature to be more recognizable as nature. Cardboard starts off as a tree, of course. The metal sculptural elements are made of steel welding rod, which is coated in copper. Steel welding rod is not traditionally used as a singular material; it is an industrial material that secures the joints of the support beams that hold up our buildings. The steel and copper are rocks and came from rocks. The glass I

is scientific glass, ON THE BILL: SCOPE OF THE NATURAL. Feb. which is convention11-March 7, Firehouse Art ally used in science Center, 667 Fourth Ave., labs to test our Longmont. The Firehouse is understanding of the open Wednesday-Friday, noon-5 p.m. by appointment world around us. only; Saturday and Sunday, Glass is directly connoon-5 p.m. for no more than nected to sand, and five walk-in guests at a time. sand is connected to Email info@firehouseart.org at least 24 hours in advance eroded rocks.” to schedule.

Hoagland questions what humans consider to be natural, “particularly the perception that nature is outside of human society.”

“I’m interested in the hierarchies that we set as humans and investigating these boundaries to understand why they have come into existence,” she says. “With a greater understanding of our position within nature, an empathetic link can be formed.”

Patrons can sign up for a timed ticket to see the exhibition during Firehouse’s Second Friday opening reception on Feb. 11. For those unable to visit during the exhibition’s run, a digital version of the installation is available (firehouseart.org). At-home viewers will still be able to participate in Cole’s research survey.

FEBRUARY 11, 2021

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PLAN

events

If your organization is planning an event of any kind, please email Caitlin at crockett@boulderweekly.com.

BLACK LIVES MATTER CO-FOUNDER, PATRISSE CULLORS, READS MOTUS THEATER’S UNDOCUMONOLOGUES: STORIES FROM OUR UNDOCUMENTED NEIGHBORS.

6 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 11, via Zoom. This event is free, but registration is required: motustheater.org/events In this special performance from Motus Theater’s Shoebox Stories: UndocuAmerica podcast, Patrisse Cullors, co-founder of Black Lives Matter, stands in the shoes of Motus UndocuMonologist Armando Peniche by reading aloud his autobiographical story of racial profiling and the danger of inflammatory rhetoric targeting Mexican immigrants. After the reading, Cullors and Peniche reflect on the stories of those who survive police brutality. Slam poet Dominique Christina will share a poem written in honor of Peniche’s story. Then Nana Gyamfi, executive director of Black Alliance for Just Immigration, and Sydelle O’Brien, an undocumented Black activist, will lead a conversation. Music by Afro-Latino musical theater artist Carlos Heredia will be interwoven throughout the performance.

VOICES OF CHANGE, PART TWO: A HISTORY OF RACE & SOCIAL JUSTICE IN LONGMONT.

7:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 11.

Free. Livestreamed to Longmont Museum’s Facebook, LongmontPublicMedia.org, and Local Comcast Channel 8/880 Local civic leaders and activists reconvene to share their perspectives on Longmont’s history of race relations and the ongoing efforts to create a more just, equitable and inclusive community. This panel discussion will feature Lorne Jenkins, CEO of Mini Money Management; Louie Lopez, community coordinator at City of Longmont; Glenda Robinson from Longmont Multicultural Action Committee; Brett Lee Shelton from Native American Rights Fund, and more.

Copresented with the Longmont Multicultural Action Committee.

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STORIES ON STAGE PRESENTS ‘A KISS IS STILL A KISS.’

7 p.m. Friday, Feb. 12. Ticket holders will receive a link to the performance. Tickets are $15 and available at storiesonstage.org or by calling 303-494-0523.

Just in time for Valentine’s Day, this February show offers up a selection of funny and romantic stories. It’s the perfect entertainment for a date night as Kate Gleason, Ilasiea Gray and Ryan Warner help us fall in love with love. The 20th Anniversary Season will be virtual/ livestreamed from the Nomad Playhouse in Boulder. Stories on Stage is teaming with Nomad Playhouse and Earth Coast Productions to create shows that will be professional multi-camera productions with the actors performing from the stage.

BOULDER BICYCLE FILM FESTIVAL.

6 p.m. Friday, February 12-Feb. 21.

Price: $10-$30, bicyclefilmfestival.com Let the Bicycle Film Festival’s curated collection of shorts take you on a journey around the world as you learn about a charismatic Ghanian immigrant in Amsterdam who teaches refugee adult women to ride bikes; experience a birdseye view of a BLM bicycle protest ride from New York to D.C.; feel the anguish of a father’s loss; the struggle of a young woman and her bike in Iran; and reprieve from genocide through cycle sport. The festival begins at 6 p.m. on Feb. 12 and can be viewed anytime, or multiple times, until the end of the day on Feb. 21. A portion of the sales benefit Community Cycles, a nonprofit bike shop and advocacy organization.

BOULDER PHIL PRESENTS MOZART AND MENDELSSOHN.

7:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 13, via Zoom. Tickets are $40 per household, boulderphil.org Pianist Simone Dinnerstein will conduct a string quintet orchestration of Mozart’s famous Piano Concerto No. 21, with the second movement memorably used in the film Elvira Madigan. The evening opens with two sentimental works by American trailblazer Scott Joplin, and concludes with the iconic Mendelssohn Octet.

‘OPERA AMORE:’ A VALENTINE’S OPERA.

7:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 13, Dairy Arts Center, 2590 Walnut St., Boulder. Price: $35, thedairy.org.

Boulder Opera presents a concert of Italian Opera favorite arias, duets, trios and quartets by Verdi, Puccini, Bellini, Mozart and more. The program explores different aspects of love, such as love yet to be, dreaming of love, new love, lost love, betrayal and reconciliation — all in a romantic cafe-style setting. Make it a date and enjoy a socially distanced drink while you’re entertained in the lobby of the Dairy Arts Center, with fresh air from the terrace. Featuring soprano Phoenix Gayles, mezzo-soprano Dianela Acosta, tenor Nathan Snyder and baritone Armando Contreras with Maggie Hinchliffe at the piano.

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BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

LISTEN

PODCASTS

R.

Alan Brooks has been busy.

Over the last several years, one success has led to another for the Denver-based writer. In 2016, Brooks teamed up with fellow comic book nerd Jordan Froelich at Mutiny Information Cafe to create the Motherfucker in a Cape (MFIAC) podcast, talking to creators, activists and other key figures in “geek culture” about topics that are often overlooked. It’s a lifelong crusade for Brooks, who, as a child, was often the only black person at the comic book conventions he went to.

That same year, Brooks launched a wildly successful Kickstarter campaign to write his first graphic novel, The Burning Metronome, a murder mystery with supernatural undertones.

Then came the teaching position at Regis University, where he’s the first professor of graphic narrative, then a gig with the Lighthouse Writers Workshop, and a weekly comic called What’d I Miss? for the Colorado Sun. By 2020 he was working on his second graphic novel, Anguish Garden, an allegorical sci-fi piece about white supremacy, and The Straw Man, his first screenplay, cowritten with longtime friend Victor V. Hogan.

This month, Brooks has teamed up with the Dairy Art Center to host a four-part series of MFIAC for the arts organization’s Black History Month celebrations. He’ll also be contributing a one-minute lecture once a month for the Dairy’s e-newsletter.

He’s got a lot on his plate, but Brooks seems to be enjoying the meal.

“I’ve just spent so much of my life having to do things that I didn’t enjoy for employment, so now that I get to do it, I’m just doing it all,” Brooks says with a laugh. “This is what I want to do. This is what I wanted to do. So I’m going to do it all. That’s kind of how it’s going, you know?”

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

Cascading success

R. Alan Brooks comes to the Dairy for Black History Month and beyond

by Caitlin Rockett

Raised in Atlanta, Brooks’ love of reading was fueled by his father, a journalist who gave his son books by Octavia Butler, Walter Mosley, C.S. Lewis, Mark Twain and Ralph Ellison — all of which he loved. But it was comic books that entranced the young Brooks, especially X-Men. “Being the only black kid at comic book conventions and only having one other friend who liked comic books at all, being an outsider because of that, and because of liking Weird Al Yankovic and stuff like that, the theme of X-Men being excluded because they were mutants certainly appealed to me,” Brooks says. “And then Professor X and Magneto felt like analogs for Malcolm X and Martin Luther King. I just enjoy people sort of finding their special talent that allows them to break out of whatever box they were put into.”

It took Brooks a while to break out of his own boxes and find his place in the world of comics. When he moved to Denver in 2003, he threw all his weight into a rapping career as Soul Daddy, writing, producing, booking and promoting his work himself, hiring jazz musicians as his backing band. He spent about a decade playing shows around Denver, but finally burned out and decided to try something more stable. So he opened an insurance firm.

But burnout struck again after some years, and Brooks, then in his late-30s, needed a reset. He took a trip to Europe that became a turning point in his life.

“I basically grew up in the one place where people really didn’t like me,” Brooks says of his childhood in the South. “When I went to Europe, I was nervous that I was going to have that same experience — people were going to dislike me. And then I realized in other parts of the world, that most people value my creativity and intelligence.”

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When Brooks was back stateside, he threw himself into working on graphic novels. And then the aforementioned cascade of success.

Of course there have been some setbacks: The pandemic paused production on The Straw Man (though Brooks says talks have resumed and filming may start in September of this year), and when he announced he was starting Anguish Garden, Brooks received racist death threats.

Unwilling to allow himself to be silenced by fear and shame, Brooks shared the comments on social media.

“I’m not going to let them do that to me in secret,” he says. “If you’re going to go to a public social media platform and you’re going to send me something like that, then you intend for it to be public.”

So far, he hasn’t experienced anything like that again.

But it speaks to the issues we’re still facing in this country, which Brooks addresses in his graphic novels. Much like Star Trek and X-Men, Brooks is able to dissect social ills in a disarming way through fantasy and sci-fi.

“In, say, relationship counseling, you’re taught how to address a conflict; they teach you to not say, ‘You did this,’ or ‘You did that,’ they teach you just to talk about your own feelings, your own experience,” he says. “If I wrote a speech or a manifesto about racism or social justice or whatever, it has a different kind of charge, it feels accusatory.

Whereas if you take the same principles and put them in a different context, suddenly the charge is removed and people can hear it.”

Brooks points to one of his idols, Rod Serling, the creator of The Twilight Zone. Serling himself wasn’t interested in fantasy or sci-fi. His scripts about racism and war weren’t jiving with TV producers of the late ’50s and early ’60s.

“They called him the angry young man of television,” Brooks says. “And then he hit on an idea that if he embeds his messages in sci-fi and fantasy, he wouldn’t be censored. I’m paraphrasing him here, but he said, ‘I could have Martians saying things that I couldn’t have Democrats and Republicans saying.’ So I think that fantasy removes the emotional charge around these topics.” see EVENTS Page 18

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shoes

ART

MARTIN PHILLIPS

LONGMONT LIBRARY PRESENTS ONLINE ART EXPOSITION.

NEW & GENTLY USED CONSIGNMENT FURNITURE

Library All Ages Art Expo webpage: bit.ly/Lib-Art-Expo During the month of January, the Longmont Public Library collected more than 100 images of local makers’ favorite creations — drawings, paintings, photographs, knitting projects, wood works, sculptures — and combined them into a family-friendly, all-ages digital art show reflecting how creative and talented the Longmont community is. All kinds of creative visual endeavors were welcome in the exhibit, with the only condition being that they had to be family-friendly. Library staff assembled the images into an online rotating gallery of images on the Library’s website.

Serving Boulder since 1986

DR. KAREN STRASSLER: SEEING/ UNSEEING THE ‘CHINESE’: VISUALITY, RACE, AND CONTEMPORARY ART IN INDONESIA.

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Locally Veteran owned Family business.

Noon. Thursday, Feb. 11, via Zoom. Zoom Meeting: cuboulder.zoom.us/j/94975192265 Dr. Karen Strassler, professor of anthropology at Queens College and CUNY Graduate Center, will speak about her research on visuality, race and contemporary art in Indonesia. Her research examines the visual politics by which “Chineseness” has become both hypervisible and invisible in work by contemporary Indonesian artists. Strassler will offer critical insights into histories of racialized violence in the archipelago.

REBECCA VAUGHAN — ARTS PRACTICUM ARTIST TALK.

6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 16, via YouTube, calendar.colorado.edu/event/rebecca_vaughan_arts_practicum_artist_talk This series of talks explores strategies to forge a sustainable, productive, fulfilling career in the arts. Speakers will discuss the trajectory and evolution of their art practices. Students and researchers from all majors and fields are welcome. All lectures are presented livestream through Art & Art History’s YouTube channel.

We sell brand new fully assembled furniture.

Now you can see our inventory of new items on our website.

USEDFURNITUREBOULDER.COM 18

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BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

books

words

Call 720.253.4710 All credit cards accepted No text messages

MEGAN E. FREEMAN AND OLIVIA CHADA IN CONVERSATION.

5 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 11, via Zoom. This event is free, but registration is required at Eventbrite. More information at boulderbookstore.net Megan E. Freeman and Olivia Chadha will speak about their young-adult fiction novels in this virtual event. In Freeman’s Alone, 12-year-old Maddie wakes up one morning completely alone in a town that has been mysteriously evacuated and abandoned. With no one to rely on, no power and no working phone lines or internet access, Maddie slowly learns to survive on her own. In Chada’s Rise of the Red Hand, the South Asian Province is split in two. “Uplanders” lead luxurious lives inside a climate-controlled biodome, but outside, the poor scrape by with discarded black-market robotics, threatened by rising sea levels, unbreathable air and deadly superbugs. Ashiva works for the Red Hand, an underground network of revolutionaries fighting the government. When Ashiva crosses paths with the brilliant hacker Riz-Ali, a privileged Uplander who finds himself embroiled in the Red Hand’s dangerous activities, they uncover a horrifying conspiracy that the government will do anything to bury.

Those who register will be emailed a Zoom link 24 hours before the event.

LAIRD HUNT — ‘ZORRIE,’ IN CONVERSATION WITH TARASHEA NESBIT.

5 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 16, via Zoom. Tickets are $5 through Eventbrite. boulderbookstore.net Laird Hunt will speak about his new book, Zorrie, in conversation with author Tarashea Nesbit (Beheld, The Wives of Alamos) for this special event. Zorrie Underwood’s modest and hardscrabble home county was the only constant in her young life. After losing both her parents, Zorrie moved in with her aunt, whose own death orphaned Zorrie all over again in Depression-era Indiana. Drifting west, Zorrie survived on odd jobs, sleeping where she could, before finding a position at a radium processing plant. Spanning an entire lifetime, Laird Hunt’s novel offers an intimate portrait of the dreams that propel one tenacious woman onward and the losses that she cannot outrun.

AN EVENING WITH AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR CAMILLE DUNGY.

6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 17. Free, but registration is required: bit.ly/3q4S01s Award-winning poet and essayist Camille Dungy will entertain and engage audiences with readings from her poetry and essay collections in this virtual event. A Q&A session will follow her reading. Dungy has authored four poetry books, most recently Trophic Cascade, winner of the Colorado Book Award, and the memoir-in-essays Guidebook to Relative Strangers: Journeys into Race, Motherhood and History, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award.

She is a professor at Colorado State University.

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

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Open Range Competition Teams Summer Day Camps Classes & Private Lessons

Target & Hunting Full Service Retail Pro Shop & Service Recurve & Compound

High Altitude Archery 455 Weaver Park Rd #500 Longmont, CO 80501 720-491-3309

FEBRUARY 11, 2021

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T ‘CODA; COURTESY SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL

All I need to get by

Dispatches from the 2021 Sundance Film Festival

by Michael J. Casey ON THE BILL: EMILIA JONES (ABOVE) plays Ruby Rossi, the hearing child in a deaf family, in the movie ‘CODA.’ You can watch ‘CODA’ on Apple TV+.

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here weren’t any crowds in Park City, Utah, and the big studios may have stayed away, but the 2021 Sundance Film Festival proved that headliners or no, in-person or virtual, the cinematic cream will always rise to the top.

Chief among them, CODA (Children of Deaf Adults), from writer/ director Siân Heder, which cleaned up in the dramatic category with the audience award, grand jury prize, a directing award and a special jury prize for the ensemble cast led by 17-year-old Emilia Jones. Jones plays Ruby Rossi, the hearing daughter of deaf parents (Troy Kotsur and Marlee Matlin) and older brother Leo (Daniel Durant). Living on the Massachusetts coast, the Rossis are commercial fishers, making Ruby the de facto family interpreter — a role Ruby’s had her whole life. And, like in a lot of families, it’s a role mom and dad have grown accustomed to and one Ruby’s grown to resent. Ruby doesn’t want fish, she wants to sing. And she can: anything from Motown to Joni Mitchell.

A familiar plot for sure, but CODA — adapted from the 2014 French film, La famille Bélier — is much more than a manipulative story of familial tension.

That’s especially true in the moments revolving around the Rossis’ hearing impairments and Ruby’s ability to move between the hearing and deaf worlds.

Those moments take the wind out of your sails and earn your emotions twofold.

Apple paid top dollar for CODA’s distribution rights following the movie’s opening night premiere. That’s good news for everyone with an Apple TV+ login, but fingers crossed for a stopover at the theaters before it gets there. Another 10 or so movies have acquired distribution as of this writing — including Flee, an outstanding documentary about a family of Afghan refugees, and Together Together, a surrogacy comedy about platonic love — but many have yet to find their fit. Among them, Mayday, a rape-revenge fantasy set on a magical island during World War II starring Grace Van Patten and a delightfully unhinged Mia Goth; Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised), a joyous concert documentary about the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival from first-time documentarian Ahmir-Khalib “Questlove” Thompson; Try Harder!, a documentary about highachieving public school students that’ll make you glad you graduated all those years ago; First Date, an absurd comedy of a young man trying to take his crush out in a city rife with criminals, corrupt cops and one very protracted book club discussion; Strawberry Mansion, a surrealist sci-fi comedy set 15 years in the future where dreams are taxed; and Pleasure, an unflinching look at the adult film industry via the rise of Bella Cherry (Sofia Kappel). This year’s Sundance sported many good performances, but none as committed as Kappel’s.

One year ago, Sundance opened on Jan. 23, the very day Chinese officials locked down the city of Wuhan in hopes of containing the fast-moving coronavirus. It’s been a long, weird year since, and though the finish line is still a ways off, a glimmer of optimism has appeared. Vaccines are rolling out, students will soon return to classes, fans are returning to sporting events, and the movie theaters have opened their doors again. And if Sundance’s lineup is any indication, they’ll have plenty of good stuff to show throughout 2021.

FEBRUARY 11, 2021

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BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

A memory I can hardly remember...

by John E. Epic

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A memory I can hardly remember, My first memory?

Dangling by a string, So close to being lost.

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I know it is Spring, The Lilac tree is in bloom, But I don’t recollect it in the words that would define things later on, Merely the sight of lavender highlighted by a sun straight above, And this wonderful scent that spawned more goose bumps than the refreshing upstate NY breeze.

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Tiny chubby fingers scrape across this scratchy surface, I know now it would eventually be my favorite blanket to take naps on in kindergarten, But this was some time before that, When the grass cut short stood up to my knees, And I was scared to pass the boundaries of my blanket, Yet I felt relief in the comfort of my own space amongst my serene surroundings.

Everything seemed to bring warmth.

The Large blue sky with white puffy clouds darting in and out of view From under the branches of lavender splendor, The sun gradually meandering up and over those green blades of soft grass, And then go dark from the large cloud’s eclipse, To once again burst bright a few infinite seconds afterward, Soothing smooth skin touched by the delicate embrace of the sun’s rays.

It was like an epiphany, My first one?

Suddenly there was the knowledge that a whole world was out there waiting for me to find the courage to search for things I yet to know— new goose bumps formed— a different kind, formed from the immense feeling of anticipation intertwined with the unexplained, and I knew I would leave that blanket someday.

A memory I can hardly remember, But the way it all made me feel is just as alive as it was that day— Maybe that is why slight remnants still cling to me.

My memories get more compacted as time slides on by, and sensitivities get duller with the repetitive rotation of happenings cosmic and everything less than; My memories lack the fine details of recollection, reality, or even fact, But I believe in them anyway And cherish them...

John E. Epic is an existential poet that has performed poems across the country, ranging from leather-footing days of youth to domesticated stability.

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

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FEBRUARY 11, 2021

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romantic as possible while still observing the necessary limitations. That’s your special task.

BY ROB BREZSNY ARIES

MARCH 21-APRIL 19: Author Anton Chekhov made a radical

proposal: ”Perhaps the feelings we experience when we are in love represent a normal state. Being in love shows people who they should be.” In accordance with astrological potentials, my beloved Aries darling, I invite you to act as if Chekhov’s proposal were absolutely true for at least the next two weeks. Be animated by a generous lust for life. Assume that your intelligence will reach a peak as you express excited kindness and affectionate compassion. Be a fount of fond feelings and cheerful empathy and nourishing ardor.

SAGITTARIUS

demand that the important people in your life be reliable and generous toward you in the coming weeks.

You can tell them I said so. Tell them that you are doing pretty well, but that in order to transform pretty well into very well, you need them to boost their support and encouragement. Read them the following words from author Alan Cohen: “Those who love you are not fooled by mistakes you have made or dark images you hold about yourself. They remember your beauty when you feel ugly; your wholeness when you are broken; your innocence when you feel guilty; and your purpose when you are confused.”

CANCER

JUNE 21-JULY 22: For a while, poet Alfred de Musset

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(1810–1857) was the sexual partner of Cancerian novelist George Sand (1804–1876), also known as Aurore Dupin. He said that after intense love-making sessions, he would fall asleep and wake up to find her sitting at her desk, engrossed in working on her next book. Maybe the erotic exchange inspired her creativity? In accordance with current astrological potentials, I recommend Sand’s approach to you.

Vigorous pleasure will coordinate well with hard work.

As will deep release with strong focus. As will tender intimacy with clear thinking. (PS: I know your options for pleasure and intimacy may be somewhat limited because of the pandemic. Call on your ingenuity and resourcefulness to work the best magic possible.)

LEO

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“Document the moments you feel most in love with yourself—what you’re wearing, who you’re around, what you’re doing. Recreate and repeat.” This would be an excellent exercise for you to carry out during this Valentine season. You’re in a phase when you’re likely to enhance your lovability and attract extra support simply by intensifying and refining the affectionate compassion you feel and express toward yourself.

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FEBRUARY 11, 2021

SCORPIO

the following story about Taurus composer Erik Satie (1866–1925). When Satie died, his old friends, many of whom were highly accomplished people, came to visit his apartment. There they discovered that all the letters they had sent him over the years were unopened. Satie had never read them! How sad that he missed out on all that lively exchange. I beg you not to do anything that even remotely resembles such a lack of receptivity during the coming weeks, Taurus.

In fact, please do just the opposite: Make yourself as open as possible to engagement and influence. I understand that the pandemic somewhat limits your social interactions. Just do the best you can.

MAY 21-JUNE 20: On behalf of the cosmic omens, I

S P E C I A L

wrote, “It ought to make us feel ashamed when we talk like we know what we’re talking about when we talk about love.” That seems like a harsh oversimplification to me. Personally, I think it’s fun and interesting to pretend we know what we’re talking about when we talk about love. And I think that will be especially true for you in the coming weeks. In my astrological opinion, you should be discussing love extensively and boldly and imaginatively. You should redefine what love means to you. You should reevaluate how you express it and reconfigure the way it works in your life.

OCT. 23-NOV. 21: I’m turning over this horoscope to psy-

GEMINI

V - D A Y

SEPT. 23-OCT. 22: Author Raymond Carver

TAURUS

APRIL 20-MAY 20: Poet and filmmaker Jean Cocteau told

O U R

LIBRA

short break so we could celebrate the Valentine season with maximum sensual revelry and extravagant displays of joyful tenderness. I wish we could rip off our masks and forget about social-distancing and hug and kiss everyone who wants to be hugged and kissed. But that’s not going to happen. If we hope to be free to indulge in a Lush Love and Lust Festival

by Valentine Season in 2022, we’ve got to be cautious and controlled now. And we are all counting on you Virgos to show us how to be as wildly, lyrically

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chologist John Welwood. His words are the medicine you need at this juncture in the evolution of intimacy.

Study the following quote and interpret it in ways that help illuminate your relationship with togetherness: “A soul connection is a resonance between two people who respond to the essential beauty of each other’s individual natures, behind their facades, and who connect on this deeper level. This kind of mutual recognition provides the catalyst for a potent alchemy. It is a sacred alliance whose purpose is to help both partners discover and realize their deepest potentials.”

NOV. 22-DEC. 21: Transform yourself with the sweetest

challenge you can dream up. Give yourself a blessing that will compel you to get smarter and wilder.

Dazzle yourself as you dare to graduate from your history. Rile yourself up with a push to become your better self, your best self, your amazingly fulfilled and masterful self. Ask yourself to leap over the threshold of ordinary magic and into the realm of spooky good magic. And if all that works out well, Sagittarius, direct similar energy toward someone you care about. In other words, transform them with the sweetest challenge you can dream up. Dare them to graduate from their history. And so on.

CAPRICORN

DEC. 22-JAN. 19: I invite you to compose a message

to a person you’d like to be closer to and whom you’re sure would like to be closer to you. Be inspired by what poet Clementine von Radics wrote to the man she was dating, telling him why she thought they could start living together. Here’s her note: “Because you texted me a haiku about the moon when you were drunk. Because you cried at the end of the movie Die Hard on Christmas eve. Because when I’m sick you bring me fruit, kiss me on the mouth, and hold me even though I’m gross. Because you bring me flowers for no reason but on Valentine’s Day you gave me a bouquet of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.

Because every time I show you a poem I love you’ve read it already.”

AQUARIUS

JAN. 20-FEB. 18: I’ve adopted some lines from poet Walt

Whitman for you to use in composing a love note.

Send it to a person you know and love, or to a person you want to know and love, or a person you will know and love in the future. Here it is: “We are oaks growing in the openings side by side. We are two fishes swimming together. We are two predatory hawks, soaring above and looking down. We are two clouds driving overhead. We are seas mingling, two cheerful waves rolling over each other. We are snow, rain, cold, darkness. We circle and circle till arriving home again, voiding all but freedom and our own joy.”

PISCES

FEB. 19-MARCH 20: “To heal is to touch with love that

which was previously touched by fear,” wrote author Stephen Levine. I propose you make this theme a keynote for your best relationships in the coming days. What can you do to alleviate the anxiety and agitation of the people you care for? How might they do the same for you? If you play along with the cosmic rhythms, you will have extraordinary power to chase away fear with love.

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

WE ARE BOULDER COUNTY!

BY DAN SAVAGE Dear Dan: I’m positive you’ve written pick the lock and before you know it he’ll something about this in the past. I have be back in your bedroom picking through searched your archives but have only your sex toys. managed to find people arguing in the You could run out the clock. Your son comments about this topic when what I is 16 years old and he’ll hopefully be out want is your advice. My 16-year-old son of the house in less time than it took to is stealing our sex toys. My son took my get him out of diapers. Twenty-four short husband’s handheld toy several months months, hundreds of millions of COVID ago. I found it where it shouldn’t have vaccinations, and a few college applicabeen and let my husband know. He talktions are all that stand between you and ed to our son and told him ROMAN ROBINSON having your house all to these are personal items, yourselves again. At that like a toothbrush, and that point you and your hushe needed to stop taking band won’t have to worry them. A few weeks ago I about your son stealing noticed my dildo was missyour sex toys — hell, at ing. I thought I had misthat point you can make a placed it or that my huslovely centerpiece out of band hid it somewhere. As them for the dining room it turns out, our son took it. table.

We talked with him again But while running out and stressed that these are the clock allows you to personal items and not avoid some squickiness, something to be shared. I you’re still gonna have to want to get him his own toy so he stops worry about him swiping your sex toys or taking ours. My husband is squicked out — even worse — swiping one, using it, about it and I agree it’s weird to have and then putting it back without cleaning your parents buy a toy for you but he it properly. Most 16-year-old boys can’t clearly wants one. I don’t want to pick it clean themselves properly; the odds that out. I want to give him a prepaid gift card your son is capable of sterilizing your and have him pick out what he wants dildo after using it on himself are very, from the website of a reputable shop. Is very low. (The odds that your son can there a better way to handle this? make you wanna jump in a time machine —Mama In Houston and go back 17 years and sterilize yourself? Very, very high.)

Dear MIH: Teenagers. Going into You could buy him some sex toys. I their rooms for even a second — even think this is the best option. Get your just to leave clean and folded laundry on son a gift card that he can blow on some their beds — is an unforgiveable invatoys for himself at a reputable sex toy sion of their privacy, a world-historical shop. Or you could pick out a few for crime on a par with the Nazi invasion of him — you already have a pretty good Poland, an atrocity that should land mom handle on the type of sex toys he finds and dad in a cell in the Hague. But that appealing — and leave those toys for same kid will tear their parents’ bedroom him on his bed next to his clean and apart looking for mom and dad’s sex folded laundry. toys, any cash mom and dad have at Having a few sex toys of his own home, mom and dad’s secret stash of won’t necessarily stop him from tearing pot, etc. Because while they’re entitled to your bedroom apart — there’s still your absolute privacy, mom and dad — or dad pot and cash to find — but it will make and dad or mom and mom — aren’t enti- him less likely to tear your bedroom tled to any privacy at all. (And your son apart looking sex toys. And perhaps may never forgive you for the embarmost importantly, buying your son some rassment you caused him when you sex toys will allow you to suspend your asked him not to steal — and not to use disbelief and pretend your son isn’t — your dildo.) looking through your sex toys long How do you handle this? enough to help him fill out those college You could forbid him to go into your applications. bedroom. You could even put a lock on Send questions to mail@savagelove. your bedroom door. But you’ll forget to net, follow Dan on Twitter @fakedansavage lock it one day or one day he’ll learn to and visit ITMFA.org.

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

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BOULDER WEEKLY

BOULDER WEEKLY STAFF

Try this week: Cobbarado salad @ Naked Lunch

NAKED LUNCH. 3301 Arapahoe Ave., Boulder, 303-449-4647, nakedlunch colorado.com

IN THE DEAD of winter, when the days are short, the temperature drops below freezing, and the Flatirons are covered by clouds, we usually stick to warm, rich comfort food. But every once in a while the body craves something fresh — crisp, uncooked vegetables atop crunchy lettuce, with the zing of dressing. Lucky for us, Naked Lunch, in The Peloton complex off of Arapahoe, serves locally sourced salads every weekday and Saturday.

On a recent visit we opted for the Cobbarado (see what they did there?): sliced Roma tomatoes, crispy bacon, tart goat cheese and ample avocado is served on a bed of crisp romaine lettuce. Normally served with ranch dressing, we went with some Champagne vinaigrette to add brightness to every bite.

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1 Celebrate Mardi Gras with Jax YOU’RE PROBABLY not going to New Orleans to celebrate Mardi Gras (Feb. 16) this year.

Maybe you are, we don’t know — at least you’ll be wearing a mask. But if you’re staying home for Fat Tuesday, Jax Fish House & Oyster Bar has a fun way to change up your food routine. It’s offering food specials like New Orleans-style char-grilled oysters, crawfish jambalaya, king cake beignets, po’ boys, gumbo, hush puppies and much more to munch on. To drink, grab a Sazerac or hurricane or $3 Abita beers. You can reserve a spot for dine-in on the 16th or order it all for takeout or delivery — takeout includes beads and masks for a festive at-home meal. Visit jaxfishhouse.com to order.

BOULDER WEEKLY

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Whole Foods CEO to chat about entrepreneurship with Boulder group JOHN MACKEY, co-founder and CEO of Whole Foods, will participate in a dialogue on natural products and entrepreneurship on Feb. 25, courtesy of Boulder-based Compass Natural Marketing. Mackey will discuss his new book, Conscious Leadership: Elevating Humanity through Business and chat about the natural foods space. Said Compass Managing Director Steven Hoffman: “We’re more than thrilled to be hosting an exclusive chance to speak with John in an intimate live setting and learn insights from his books and stories from his four decades in business at the nation’s top natural products grocer.” To register for the Zoom chat, visit bit.ly/3p8D0hN

FEBRUARY 11, 2021

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FEBRUARY 11, 2021

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BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

Boulder Beer, reimagined

Colorado’s oldest craft brewery relaunches with new cans and talk of a new taproom

B

oulder Beer has some staying power.

Despite management of Colorado’s first independent craft brewery switching hands last year, and despite the closure of its taproom, this elder statesmen of Colorado’s craft brewing is getting a facelift in 2021 thanks to a coordinated effort from some heavy hitters in the beer industry.

Starting this week, Boulder Beer is relaunching in 28 states with new can designs and some new brews. The launch is the result of at least a year’s worth of work.

Over a year ago, when Boulder Beer announced its intentions to close, Matthew Osterman of the Denver contract brewer Sleeping Giant approached Boulder Beer owner Gina Day with a partnership idea that would keep Boulder Beer cans on liquor store shelves. Osterman says keeping the brand alive was personal.

“Partially it was an emotional decision because

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

by Matt Cortina I didn’t want to see Boulder Beer evaporate into the mist. ... Boulder Beer is quintessentially Boulder,” Osterman says. “It feels a bit surreal to carry on the Boulder Beer brand because it was such an iconic concept that loomed so large for so long.”

Day adds Boulder Beer is now Osterman’s brand — “he’s the one creating, doing and orchestrating,” she says.

Osterman has the freedom to tweak recipes and has invited former Boulder Beer head brewer David Zuckerman to the Sleeping Giant facility to taste the beers.

So what’s coming back, albeit in some fancy new digs?

Hazed & Infused, the iconic hazy IPA mde from El Dorado, Mandarina Bavaria, CTZ and Huell Melon hops; the citrus-forward Mojo High Altitude IPA; Shake Dark Chocolate Porter; and the Sko Buff Gold Beer. New is the Bubbly by Nature IPA that’s “tropical and juicy like an IPA, crisp and easy-

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drinking like a lager,” according to the packaging notes, and a version of the Shake porter aged on Laws Whiskey barrels (available on limited release).

Osterman worked with some former New Belgium folks, Dave Duffy and Greg Owsley, to smooth some of the wrinkles of the sales and marketing future for Boulder Beer. As a result, Stem Ciders has agreed to handle the day-to-day sales and marketing of the relaunch, a partnership facilitated by Duffy’s current leadership role at Stem.

“We thought we needed to start fresh with an empty palette and reinvent,” Duffy says. “Boulder as a city has really evolved and we felt the brand should reflect that reinvention.”

So far, Boulder Beer won’t necessarily be on tap at Stem’s Lafayette outpost or anywhere else for that matter, but Osterman says you may be able to enjoy Boulder Beer in a taproom sometime soon. He says they’ll “definitely” open a Boulder Beer taproom; it’s just a matter of when.

Until then, you can grab Boulder Beer in its sleek new cans, which are designed with black-andwhite photos captured by Boulder residents — unique views of the Flatirons, mountains and the Sunrise Amphitheatre are all featured.

So, Boulder Beer is back, and has a bright future ahead. Not bad for the old dog of Colorado craft brewing.

FEBRUARY 11, 2021

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BOULDER WEEKLY

COURTESY GRACE’S GOODNESS ORGANICS

S

everal years ago, Grace Ventura got a bug. The youngest of her six children, the only one still in the house, “wasn’t going to cook for me,” she jokes.

“I wanted soup,” Ventura says, but the canned options were packed with preservatives, bouillon loaded with salt. “And so I woke up one day at 4 a.m. and I just said, ‘How can I have my own soup any time, anywhere? Have something I knew would nourish me, with clean ingredients, that’s really simple.”

ucts, and called her health and wellness connections and used social media to get the word out. The community of natural food entrepreneurs at Naturally Boulder also assisted. It all kept growing, so Ventura found a co-packer, a supplier for dehydrated ingredients and started taking her products to stores in Colorado and, eventually, beyond.

“We would walk into a store and literally sell it in two minutes, because it never existed before,” Ventura says.

The community validated the concept of Beyond Broth, which is now undergoing a brand change to Grace’s Goodness Organics with plans to add complementary products.

There were some lessons to be learned, though.

At least, Ventura says, advice from the entrepreneur community had her prepared for them. For instance, some customers were hesitant to buy the early product again because of the texture — the veggies in the broth (which becomes broth when you add hot water to the dehydrated packet, in case that wasn’t clear) would settle at the bottom, creating a concentrated, gritty flavor bomb.

Sarah Bird, CEO of Grace’s Goodness, who came into the company fold about a year and a half ago after stops at natural foods titans Annie’s and Bhakti Chai, says all it took was a simple, healthful addition to cleverly eliminate the problem while improving the product.

“Grace has always had on the back of

Souped up

Boulder entrepreneur Grace Ventura grows her plant-based broth business

by Matt Cortina So Ventura, who had spent decades as a health and wellness professional, turned necessity into invention: a line of plantbased, organic, dehydrated broths that are both nourishing and targeted to attack common problems she’d heard from her wellness clients: energy, immunity and gut health.

Ventura worked with one daughter to taste-test and refine recipes, made in the early days via a Vitamix blender and dehydrated vegetable powder, and then worked with another daughter, an herbalist, to create something that could address the aforementioned health considerations.

Ventura named her product Beyond Broth, built a website, packaged her prodBOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

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the packet: add coconut oil and nutritional yeast to keep the veggies in suspension,” Bird says. So, to skip a step on the consumer side, “We added those ingredients.

Now they have MCT powder, which has coconut oil. The veggies are more evenly dispersed, and it also has more flavor notes and makes it more nutritious.”

Each .35-ounce packet of Grace’s Goodness broths clock in at 320-350 mg of sodium (that’s about 14-15% of your daily recommended value), have no added sugars, are high in Vitamins A and C and are less than 1 gram of fat.

You can sip the broth straight, or use it as a base for soups. The Immune variety has cumin and turmeric; the Better Belly option has lemon and ginger; and the Vitality offering has rosemary and thyme. (You can get them at gracesgoodness.com.)

As Ventura’s company embraces the new Grace’s Goodness brand and continues to grow, she says it’s critical that the reason she created the product in the first place stays front of mind.

“It’s so important the passion, the commitment, the mission, the vision and the purpose is always in alignment,” Ventura says. “If it falls away, if this new product didn’t keep up with the integrity or quality of where I started I couldn’t even back it and I don’t think other people would because of that [demonstrated] commitment to a higher purpose and mission. That, to me, is what wins the day.”

FEBRUARY 11, 2021

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A misleading distinction

The indica-sativa duality is confused — Weedmaps’ Jared Leighty explains what factors actually produce strain-specific effects

By Will Brendza

W

hen purchasing cannabis, users are faced with a choice: Do they want an indica high or a sativa high?

The distinction (as it was first described to me) is that indica will put a person in-da-couch, with a heavier, sleepier and more relaxed high; whereas sativa stimulates, offering a much more mentally and physically active high.

However, that binary distinction shouldn’t be the only factor that guides a consumer’s cannabis purchases, according to Jared Leighty, the development manager at Weedmaps.com. He says that differentiation is a remnant of cannabis’ illicit past, and isn’t all that accurate anymore.

“The illicit and traditional underground market originally used the terms ‘indica versus sativa’ as a marketing technique to sell to new and uneducated users,” Leighty explains. “In today’s world, everything you’re purchasing is most likely a form of a hybrid phenotype.”

Because there has been relatively little research into cannabis for decades,

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everything anyone really used to know about the differences between strains on those traditional markets was anecdotal.

That’s why dealers latched onto these two very broad categories to describe the different effects offered by their different products.

“The terms indica and sativa are more about describing where the plant originated from,” Leighty explains. Indica stems from the modern Latin word for “India” where that species originated.

Sativa stems from the Latin word for “cultivated” — sativa — and was grown in equatorial places in Africa and Central and South America, he says.

“There are also physical differenc-

FEBRUARY 11, 2021

es in the appearance between the indica and sativa plants when they are being cultivated,” he says. But both can offer active highs, and both can offer more relaxed ones. “The cannabinoid and terpene profiles in a strain are actually what give you your desired effects.”

WEEDMAPS CBD and THC are the most commonly known cannabinoids, but there are more than 120 others that are lesser studied and that all contribute to a strain’s effects. Those cannabinoids, in combination with the plant’s terpene profiles, creates a unique synthesis known as the “entourage effect,” which gives the strain its distinctive high.

“When you truly understand the cannabinoids and terpenes in each strain, you’re going to have a better determination on how [your body is] going to react overall,” Leighty says.

On the retailer end, Leighty says this means that vendors should remain knowledgeable and educated on their products. In order to accurately guide their customer’s choices, they should know more about their bud than just its status as indica or sativa.

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“They should be able to speak to the terpene and cannabinoid content of their products,” he says, “as well as be able to refer to the Certificate of Analysis (CoA) for each brand and product when available.”

Consumers can also do more research on the bud they’re buying, using readily available and easily accessible resources.

Leighty’s first suggestion is to read the CoA of each strain while shopping — “Just like reading the ingredients and nutritional information on the back of your items at the grocery store,” he says.

Weedmaps has some resourses — an education page and a platform to look up individual strains, their cannabinoid content, terpene profile, history, origin and typical effects. But no matter where you look today, information is available to make better distinctions between cannabis strains than the simple binary of indica versus sativa. It’s time to stop perpetuating that misleading duality, Leighty says.

“Since the war on drugs has stifled access and opportunity to research the plant for decades, we are still learning new things about this wonderful plant each day,” Leighty says. “The indica and sativa comparison was just easy for people to understand and grasp, which is why it stuck and has moved through into today’s market, even though it isn’t entirely accurate.”

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